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How Robotic Surgery Is Changing the Health Care Career Field – 7/26/2013

How Robotic Surgery Is Changing the Health Care Career Field
By Ben Thomas

July 26, 2013 — The operating room is one of the most famous scenes in medicine: Surgeons and nurses in scrubs and face masks, all working intently above the patient on the table. But in many specialties, that scene is rapidly giving way to a new one: Nurses and techs monitoring the patient while a surgical robot - controlled by a doctor in a nearby room - makes incisions and stitches sutures.

Today's surgical robots are fine-tuned for procedures from prostatectomies to hysterectomies - and new robots are entering the marketplace every year. Thus, a growing number of doctors are specializing in robotic surgery; a shift that creates a need for robot-ready nurses, techs and other allied health professionals. Here, experts in robotic surgery explain where the field stands today, where it’s headed in the near future, and how these developments can help you take your own health care career to the next level.

Sprouting specialties

Although the majority of surgical robots are currently used for prostatectomies, hysterectomies and similar high-precision removals, surgeons are also beginning to use robots for transplants, hepatobiliary surgery and other procedures where laparoscopic techniques aren’t quite minimally invasive enough.

“Laparoscopic surgery uses manually controlled instruments, and has vastly improved patient safety and outcomes - but has its own limitations,” says Philip Clark, operations director of the Clinical Robotic Surgery Association. “In comparison to surgical robots, laparoscopic techniques provide lower visualization, a variety of potential problems with motion and control, and the very real possibility of surgeon fatigue.” This means that if laparoscopic techniques are already in wide use by surgeons in your specialty, your field is likely a prime target for surgical robotics.

“We’re starting to see robotics expand into a broader array of sub-specialities,” says Dr. Vipul Patel, the founding member of the Society of Robotic Surgery and the medical director of The Global Robotics Institute at Florida Hospital Celebration Health. “There’s a robot for spine surgery now; there’s an orthopedic robot for hip surgery; there’s a robot for brain surgery - and more new robots are coming on the market every year.”

Whether you work with oncologists or orthopedic surgeons, there’s a good chance that surgical robots either are already in use in your area of expertise, or will come into use sometime in the next decade. You can start your own investigation by simply asking around your department, and listening to what surgeons and other doctors have to say about surgical robotics in your area.

Expanding opportunities

Even if your specialty doesn’t depend on minimally invasive techniques, some knowledge of robotic operating procedures may still give you an edge over the competition. That’s because telesurgery is under well-funded investigation at the moment - even for more traditional procedures. The U.S. Department of Defense is pouring millions of dollars of grant money into telesurgery research right now, and the implications for in-the-field trauma interventions aren’t hard to see.

Once you’ve got some idea of how surgical robots fit into your specialty, you can find out where you fit into the picture by exploring your options for education. There’s good news and bad news here. The bad news is that online courses can’t really teach the essentials of robotic surgery assistance - but the good news is that new educational programs are springing up all the time. “Robotic surgery assistance takes hands-on training, which typically takes place on-site at a physical institution,” Patel explains. “There, trainees can work with surgeons to gain an intuitive understanding of how each robot works, how it’s best utilized, how it can be operated most safely, and what kind of assistance it requires.”

Many of these hands-on training programs are easy to find with a quick Google search for terms like “robotic surgery education” or “robotic surgery institution.” They’re popping up all across the U.S. and around the world, and many of them are far quicker and more affordable than comparable trade-school programs in medical specialties.

Another piece of good news is that your role as an assistant may remain fairly familiar, even with a robot in the room. “The surgical assistant is still that individual who is standing by the patient, even while the primary surgeon sits at a console away from the table,” Clark says. That’s because robotic-surgery patients still require anesthesia and other prepping, as well as close monitoring and maintenance throughout the surgery itself.

In short, a little investigation now may add up to a robot-related job opportunity in your future. Developing your robotics expertise now can help keep you at the top of the interview list when new robots arrive at your site - and what’s more, it’ll demonstrate to your higher-ups that you’re eager to learn, ready to advance and well-prepared for your field’s technological future.

Ben Thomas writes about careers in surgical technology, among other career fields in the healthcare industry, for the Riley Guide.